The Moroccan state news agency says the group had links to small groups at the Iraqi border. It said two top suspects were recruiting other extremists, including two Moroccans who had been prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The agency report did not describe the precise nature of the group's alleged links to al-Qaida. But it said Moroccan authorities had been tracking one of the suspects, a Moroccan national identified as Khaled Azig, since last March.

Moroccan security forces have been on high alert since suicide bombing attacks in Casablanca two years ago killed 45 people.